Consumers desire to use cosmetic and personal care compositions that enhance the appearance of keratin fibers, such as hair, by changing the color of the hair and/or by imparting various properties to hair, for example, shine and conditioning. The process of changing the color of hair can involve depositing an artificial color onto the hair, which provides a different shade or color to the hair, and/or lifting the color of the hair.
The process of lifting the color of hair, also known as lightening, generally requires the use of compositions that comprise at least one oxidizing agent to lighten the color of dark hair to lighter shades. When colorants or dye compounds such as oxidation dye precursors and direct dyes are present in these compositions, such compositions can change or deposit color and lighten the color of hair at the same time. Conventional hair coloring products are permanent dye compositions comprising oxidation dye precursors, which are also known as primary intermediates or couplers. These oxidation dye precursors are colorless or weakly colored compounds which, when combined with oxidizing agents, give rise to colored complexes by a process of oxidative condensation.
Lightening or lifting the color of the hair is typically evaluated by the variation in tone height before and after the application of a hair color-altering composition onto hair. This variation corresponds to the degree or level of lightening or lift. The notion of “tone” is based on the classification of the natural shades, one tone separating each shade from the shade immediately following or preceding it, which is well known to hairstyling professionals. The tone heights or levels range from 1 (black) to 10 (light blond), one unit corresponding to one tone; thus, the higher the number, the lighter the shade or the greater the degree of lift.
In general, hair lightening or color lifting compositions may require the presence of an alkalizing agent such as ammonia or an ammonia gas generating compound and/or an amine or ammonium-based compound in amounts sufficient to make such compositions alkaline. The alkalizing agent causes the hair shaft to swell, thus allowing the small oxidative dye molecules to penetrate the cuticle and cortex before the oxidation condensation process is completed. The resulting larger-sized colored complexes from the oxidative reaction are then trapped inside the hair fiber, thereby permanently altering the color of the hair. While such hair dyeing and/or color lifting compositions can effectively alter the color of hair, these compositions can damage the hair fibers and/or irritate the scalp due to having excessively high levels of alkalinity.
Thus, in order to reduce or avoid the drawbacks above, as well as to improve the cosmetic performance of hair color lifting and hair dyeing compositions, the use of new and additional ingredients and novel combinations of ingredients are continuously sought. However, the choice of ingredients or combinations of ingredients could pose difficulties insofar as they cannot be detrimental to other cosmetic attributes such as ease and uniformity of application, rheology or viscosity properties and stability of the compositions, color deposit and target shade formation, and/or result into more disadvantages such as increased damage or a less healthy look to the hair. It is therefore, desirable to provide the consumer with compositions and methods that can lift the color of hair and additionally, deposit color onto hair in an efficient or improved manner, while preventing excess damage to the hair and/or providing other cosmetic advantages such as shine, conditioning, and a healthy appearance to the hair.
Thus, an objective of the present disclosure is to provide novel compositions for altering the color of hair by lifting or lightening the color of the hair and optionally depositing color, while minimizing the damage to the hair and other adverse effects to the consumer.